DiCaprio to walk Cannes carpet

Leonardo DiCaprio will attend the Cannes Film Festival this year for The Great Gatsby

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan are set to attend the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.

The big-screen adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel, which also stars Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher, will screen out of competition as part of the Official Selection on May 15 at the Grand Theatre Lumiere of the Palais des Festivals.

Rapper Jay-Z and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan will also attend the premiere for the period picture, festival organisers said.

"It is a great honour for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes Film Festival," director Baz said in a statement.

"We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film, Strictly Ballroom, was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside St Raphael."

Leo plays Jay Gatsby in the 3D movie, with Carey as Daisy Buchanan and Tobey as narrator Nick Carraway.

It will be the first time that Leonardo has returned to the festival since 2007, when The 11th Hour, an ecological documentary he produced, was screened there.

Baz's films have been showcased twice by the Festival de Cannes - Strictly Ballroom in 1992 and Moulin Rouge! at the opening of the festival in 2001.

The festival runs from May 15 to 26 and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is head of this year's jury.